A variety of packages, including dispensing packages that include a container and a closure, have been developed for personal care products such as shampoo, lotions, etc., as well as for other fluent materials. A closure is typically mounted over the container opening. In many types of packages, both the closure and container are threaded so that the closure can be initially screwed on the container by an automatic capping machine.
Depending upon the size of the container, the size of the closure, and the materials from which the container and closure are made, it can be desirable in some applications to provide the capability for screwing the closure onto the container with a relatively high torque.
In a typical conventional design of a closure, the closure is provided with a cylindrical, exterior, peripheral wall. In conventional, high speed, high-volume manufacturing processes, the closure is installed on the container by an automatic capping machine which incorporates rubber rollers or rolls for engaging the peripheral wall of the closure. The automatic capping machine rollers are typically made from a somewhat soft, resilient material, such as rubber. The capping machine rollers are rotated while in frictional engagement against the closure peripheral wall to impart a rotation to the closure for screwing the closure on to the container.
In some conventional closure designs, the peripheral wall of the closure is includes vertical flutes or ribs. The flutes or ribs have a generally V-shaped transverse cross section (as viewed in a plane perpendicular to the vertical height of each rib), and such a flute or rib feature increases the frictional engagement between the capping machine rollers and the closure.
It would be desirable in some applications to provide an improved closure having an enhanced capability for being gripped by the rollers of an automatic capping machine. Further, it would be advantageous if such an improved closure could accommodate a relatively high torque installation without slipping in an automatic capping machine.
It would be desirable to provide an improved closure wherein the enhanced gripping feature would work well with conventional capping machine rollers. Such an improved closure should also preferably accommodate closures constructed from a variety of materials and having various sizes.
It would also be beneficial if such an improved closure could accommodate the efficient, high-quality, high-speed, high-volume processing techniques for applying closures, and could accommodate such techniques with a reduced package reject rate to produce packages having consistent operating characteristics package-to-package with high reliability.